Heart Sutra

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Ngawang Drolma
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Heart Sutra

Post by Ngawang Drolma »

Prajna-paramita Sutra
The Heart of Wisdom

This is what I once heard at the time the Blessed One was seated on Vulture’s Peak in Rajagriha with a huge congregation of the exalted community of Bhikshus and Bodhisattvas. At that time the Blessed One was dwelling in the meditation called “Profound Vision.”

At that time, also, the great Bodhisattva, the heroic being, Arya Avalokiteshvara, while reviewing the profound characteristics of the Prajña-paramita reviewed also the natural voidness of the five aggregates.
Then the elder Shariputra, moved by the power of the Buddha, addressed Arya Avalokiteshvara with these words: “How should a son or a daughter of a good family who wishes to perform the profound practice of the Prajña-paramita train themselves?” The Great Being, the Bodhisattva Arya Avalokiteshvara replied this to Sharadvatiputra, “Shariputra! That son or daughter of a good family who wishes to perform the profound practice of the Prajña-paramita should first rightly see that all the aggregates, by their very nature, are void.

Form is void. Voidness is form. Voidness is not other than form nor is form other than voidness.

So, too, all feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness are void.
Shariputra! In the same way all dharmas are empty, devoid of characteristics, unborn, unstopped, unsullied, unpurified, undecreased, and unfilled.
Therefore, Shariputra, in voidness there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no impulses, no consciousness, no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no form, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no dharmas. There is no element of eye, and so on through the element of mind and the element of mental consciousness. There is no ignorance, no elimination of ignorance; no death and decay and no elimination of death and decay.

There is no pain, no origin, no cessation, no path; no wisdom, no attainment, no non-attainment.

Shariputra, because nothing is really obtained, all Bodhisattvas who have no fear rely on and dwell in Prajña-paramita, for they have no mental obscurations. They are perfectly liberated and have gone completely beyond deception. Relying on Prajña-paramita, all the Buddhas of the three times are completely enlightened to that unsurpassable, pure, and perfect enlightenment.

Therefore the mantra of Prajña-paramita, the mantra of great awareness, the unsurpassable mantra, the mantra that equalizes all unequal things, and the mantra that fully allays all pains, should because it is not false, be known as truth. The mantra of Prajña-paramita is spoken thus:

TADYATHA: GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA!

Shariputra! In this way great Bodhisattvas, heroic beings should train in the profound Prajña-paramita.”

Then the Blessed One arose from that meditation called “Profound Vision” and spoke to the great Bodhisattva, the heroic being Arya Avalokiteshvara: “Well said, Noble Son, well said! It is just so. One should practice Prajña-paramita as you have taught and all the Tathagatas will rejoice.”

When the Blessed One had spoken thus, the elder Sharadvatiputra and the Bodhisattva, the great being, Arya Avalokiteshvara, together with all that assembly of gods, as well as humans, demi-gods and gandharvas joyfully praised the words of the Blessed One.
Drolma
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Re: Heart Sutra

Post by Drolma »

:bow:

TADYATHA GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA!

:heart:
Dazzle
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Re: Heart Sutra

Post by Dazzle »

.

Recommended reading :-' Essence Of The Heart Sutra' by HH Dalai Lama


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M trade
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Re: Heart Sutra

Post by M trade »

The Heart Sutra led me to read "The Perfection of Wisdom in 8000 lines", which in turn led me to read "The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom"
Anyone else drawn to these texts? Anyone with knowledge of a forum discussing either of these sutras?
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Huifeng
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Re: Heart Sutra

Post by Huifeng »

M trade wrote:The Heart Sutra led me to read "The Perfection of Wisdom in 8000 lines", which in turn led me to read "The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom"
Anyone else drawn to these texts? Anyone with knowledge of a forum discussing either of these sutras?
I'm doing my PhD on them. :thinking:

I also highly recommend the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Upadeśa.
Huseng
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Re: Heart Sutra

Post by Huseng »

Venerable Huifeng

Is there an extant Sanskrit or Tibetan version of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Upadeśa?
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Huifeng
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Re: Heart Sutra

Post by Huifeng »

Huseng wrote:Venerable Huifeng

Is there an extant Sanskrit or Tibetan version of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Upadeśa?
No.

Unless you were to pick through each backtranslated *word in Lamotte's French of the first 35 chapters, and reconstruct them into some semblance of order! :rolleye:
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Re: Heart Sutra

Post by Huseng »

Huifeng wrote:
Huseng wrote:Venerable Huifeng

Is there an extant Sanskrit or Tibetan version of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Upadeśa?
No.

Unless you were to pick through each backtranslated *word in Lamotte's French of the first 35 chapters, and reconstruct them into some semblance of order! :rolleye:
Ah, that would confirm that suspicion I've read about that it wasn't actually a translation, but possibly composed by Kumarajiva.
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Huifeng
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Re: Heart Sutra

Post by Huifeng »

Huseng wrote:
Huifeng wrote:
Huseng wrote:Venerable Huifeng

Is there an extant Sanskrit or Tibetan version of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Upadeśa?
No.

Unless you were to pick through each backtranslated *word in Lamotte's French of the first 35 chapters, and reconstruct them into some semblance of order! :rolleye:
Ah, that would confirm that suspicion I've read about that it wasn't actually a translation, but possibly composed by Kumarajiva.
Several scholars have studied and written on the author of the Upadesa. The arguments are thick and deep, and very complex.

The name in the colophon is Nagarjuna.
Kumarajiva is the translator, along with Sengrui and others.

Lamotte, in his first volumes agreed with this, but in the third volume said that it was not Nagarjuna, but a former Sarvastivada Abhidharmika from the NW, maybe about 100 yrs after Nagarjuna. But he doesn't actually give the author a name.

干潟龍祥(Hikata)『大智度論作者』 thought it was also Nagarjuna, elaborated by Kumarajiva. (Maybe 平川彰(Hirakawa):『十住毗婆沙論著者』and) 加藤純章(Kato Junsho):『大智度論的世界』made their comments around the same time. I think it was Junsho who argued that it was maybe composed by Kumarajiva himself. Although he uses points like a couple of lines of "In Chinese, this means ...", which is certainly added by Kumarajiva, that also does not mean that the whole thing was composed by him.

Yinshun (well, Ven Zhuanghui under Ven Yinshun's name and guidance) countered both of them, pointing out some errors, and still said that it was Nagarjuna. I'm not convinced it was really Nagarjuna, but the bredth of Indic material is stunning to say the least. Yinshun's article 《大智度論》之作者及其翻譯
AUTHOR & TRANSLATION OF THE MAHĀPRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ UPADEŚA is one of the more interesting, simply from his depth of knowledge, and because he read the others and could comment on their theories. Unfortunately, few others ever read Yinshun in return.

Chou Bo-kan wrote his claims that Sengrui was the major factor in making is so seamless in Chinese, that people could easily be fooled into thinking that it was a Chinese creation. Apparently Chou ran into some difficulties when he was questioned by one of Yinshun's best students about his ideas.

My money is still with Lamotte in his Vol three, but with some notes from Yinshun, particularly that it is not only Sarvastivadin material, but has a chunk of material from the SE, too. Junsho's points lean too much on what are probably glosses, eg. the "In Chinese this means ..." statements - there aren't really that many of them. For a start, the author is definitely Indic. Also doesn't think much of those from border areas - doesn't sound like Kumarajiva, does it, let alone someone from China!

But actually very little of any of this is related to the absence of a Sanskrit or Tibetan version. It is a massive text, from the NW probably. Chances are that it was difficult for a full copy to be made to go anywhere else, except for Kumarajiva's hands, and may have never even made it to the central lands. And chances are it was lost long before Tibetan's ever heard about the Dharma.
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Re: Heart Sutra

Post by Huseng »

Huifeng wrote: Yinshun (well, Ven Zhuanghui under Ven Yinshun's name and guidance) countered both of them, pointing out some errors, and still said that it was Nagarjuna. I'm not convinced it was really Nagarjuna, but the bredth of Indic material is stunning to say the least. Yinshun's article 《大智度論》之作者及其翻譯
AUTHOR & TRANSLATION OF THE MAHĀPRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ UPADEŚA is one of the more interesting, simply from his depth of knowledge, and because he read the others and could comment on their theories. Unfortunately, few others ever read Yinshun in return.
I imagine Yinshun wrote entirely in Chinese? Did any of it get translated into Japanese, I wonder? That might explain why nobody read him in return, unfortunately.

While it has changed somewhat, unfortunately for the longest time most Japanese scholars just read and discussed fellow Japanese opinions while ignoring the rest of the world. Even in matters related to Chinese Buddhism I've noticed some scholars pay no attention to non-Japanese opinions (even Chinese/Taiwanese opinions) and only reference and discuss fellow Japanese authors (that might be because they don't want to bother with foreign languages). I think this is somewhat inevitable though because Japan being a small country scholars all personally know fellow scholars of the same field. Fortunately this seems to be changing. I saw one lengthy section of a book in Japanese dedicated to refuting Nattier's theory on the Heart Sutra.

Anyway.

My money is still with Lamotte in his Vol three, but with some notes from Yinshun, particularly that it is not only Sarvastivadin material, but has a chunk of material from the SE, too. Junsho's points lean too much on what are probably glosses, eg. the "In Chinese this means ..." statements - there aren't really that many of them. For a start, the author is definitely Indic. Also doesn't think much of those from border areas - doesn't sound like Kumarajiva, does it, let alone someone from China!
While Kumarajiva was from a border region which is now part of Xinjiang in the PRC, I still would like to think he had extensive enough knowledge and training to sound Indic. He was erudite and well read, so sounding Indic in his writing presumably wouldn't have been all that difficult.

However, that chunk of material from the SE sounds intriguing and would complicate any theory that asserts it was Kumarajiva who penned it.
But actually very little of any of this is related to the absence of a Sanskrit or Tibetan version. It is a massive text, from the NW probably. Chances are that it was difficult for a full copy to be made to go anywhere else, except for Kumarajiva's hands, and may have never even made it to the central lands. And chances are it was lost long before Tibetan's ever heard about the Dharma
.

Do you know if there is any reference to it at all in an Indian source? Not a single line anywhere alluding to the title?
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Huifeng
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Re: Heart Sutra

Post by Huifeng »

Sure, Kumarajiva would have no problems with sounding Indic. But the text is not just Indic, but really doesn't think much of those (Indic) peoples from the border-lands. Khotan and even Kasmir is borderland.

No reference at all, as far as any modern scholar knows. Heck, it took even Lamotte three volumes to work out that it is an "upadesa" and not a "sastra". (Though many modern scholars still write "sastra" ...)

Go and download the five volumes from the Gampo Abbey translations by Ani Migme Chodron. esp. vol. III.
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